Teen Crisis Intervention and Gangs
The most powerful form of teen crisis intervention is when a former addict uses their life as a testimony to the power of choice and the possibility for change. In terms of intervention in the lives of those troubled teenagers that are caught up in gangs, it is extremely effective for them to hear from one of their own who succeeded in escaping gang life. Leaving drugs and crime is one thing. Leaving a gang is another proposition.
“…eventually the life of a gang member wore on him. And on his family. He tried leaving the gang, but leaving a gang is like leaving a cult, Lilly said. The members are brainwashed. One night, men jumped him and beat him for trying to leave.
“I had a blood clot in my head from the beating,” said Lilly, now 31. “My eyes were so swollen I couldn’t see.”
Through the beating and other incidents, Lilly saw his mother Janet’s disappointment.
“She came to the hospital every day crying,” Lilly said. “And she left every day crying. I realized I had to make a change. It’s a terrible thing to shatter a mother’s dreams.”
Lilly returned to running, an early passion in life. He did it minus the use of one leg, an old gang shooting had deprived him of his other one. He has gone on to become a world class athlete.
Relevant Tags:crisis intervention, drugs and crime, gang life, gang member, teen crisis intervention, teen crisis, troubled teenagers, wheelchair racer, world class athlete“Lilly is now a professional wheelchair racer and motivational speaker. He speaks to kids about the importance of choices.
“I tell them life is about what kinds of choices you make, and how your choices will affect you for the rest of your life,” Lilly said before the race began in Fairbanks last Friday. “I’m a living example of that.”
Teen Crisis Intervention